The Detectives Three (or: Phil's Angels)
by tielan
Summary: Maria Hill is having a bad senior year. Her best buddy Phil Coulson was swiped in a hit-and-run one month into term. Now he lies in a coma and the cops have no leads to follow. Maria has her suspicions, but voicing them could be dangerous. Unexpected assistance comes from Pepper Potts and Jane Foster. [High School AU]


**NOTES: **written because I had a "high school/college AU" on my trope bingo box. There are elements of a longer story here, involving many other characters from the MCU, but this is all there's likely to be. The original title for the piece was "The Detectives Three" but I like to call this one "Phil's Angels." ;)

**Phil's Angels**

Mrs. Salton had to go home – Mr. Salton would be expecting his dinner.

Maria wanted to be angry Phil's mom for not being willing to stay with Phil, but she understood rather better than she liked to admit. Sometimes it was easier just to give in – to just buckle down and let them have their way.

"But is that all we're good for? To be on the outside all the time?" Phil didn't answer or move, but the monitor beeped. "I know you said it was the right thing to stick up to Stark and Odinsson when they were carrying on. But it's easier for you – you're a guy. When you're standing up to them, you're being a hero, while I'm just being a bitch."

Not that she'd ever cared much what was thought of her by the other kids at school. She'd never been one of the popular crowd – one of the pretty girls, the flirty girls, the clever girls, or the nice girls. A little too sharp, a little too sensible, a little too unwilling to give in, to make friendly.

She'd never belonged at Midgard High.

And now, without Phil, she _really_ didn't belong anywhere.

"The football team made the playoffs." The nurses ummed and aahed on the question of whether Phil could hear her – Maria wasn't convinced either way, but he was pretty much the only person she'd had to talk to for a while now – at least, civilly, and which didn't involve schoolwork. "You would have liked the game on Friday. Rogers' Hail Mary was pretty amazing. In the last few minutes, too..."

Maria sat there for a few moments, watching Phil's face. When he woke up – _when_, not _if_ – he'd be so pissed off that he missed his hero's crowning moment of glory.

Wheels trundled by out in the corridor – the nurses taking dinner around to the patients. It wouldn't be too long before Maria had to get home.

"You should have been there." She exhaled, thinking of why he wasn't. "The police have asked for anyone with information to come forward – but they don't think they'll find the driver who did this. They said most hit-and-runs are never solved – there's just nothing to go on unless there's witnesses. And even on a Saturday night, with people everywhere and a major party on at the Odinsson's...nobody saw anything. At least, nobody's come forward to say so..."

Although why should they? Phil had been...well, not nobody. But not noticed, either.

"Barton asked Natasha out. That's your fault. He said that your accident showed him life was too short to spend it worrying about rejection. So he asked her, expecting her to give him the brush-off, but she said yes, and he's been insufferable ever since." Maria tucked her hands between her thighs and hunched her shoulders. "They were going to come here after school, but I told them to go make out somewhere I wouldn't have to watch. I guess they did."

Sneakers squeaked down the corridor pausing just outside the door. Maria turned her head to look and see who it was, but they'd already moved on – wrong room. Just as well. She wasn't up to being nice and polite to anyone who'd come to visit.

Maria had no idea who'd visit Phil – other than Clint and Natasha, but they'd have come right in, not stopped outside and gone away.

"Nick had detention this afternoon. He'll be by tomorrow." Maria stared at the pale face in the bed. "And I don't know why I'm telling you all this. It's not as though you can hear me..."

Out in the corridor, shoes shuffled and stopped. "I think it's around here somewh—?"

Maria frowned a little. That voice was familiar – and as unwelcome as it was unexpected. Because if Pepper Potts was here then that probably meant—

"Maria."

"Jane." Maria stared at the dark-haired girl who paused on the threshold of the room. This was even more unexpected than Pepper Potts – who stopped sharply just behind Jane. No sign of Stark, which was something at least. "What are you doing here?"

Jane stepped hesitantly into the room. "I came to see you."

"To see me?"

"Yes." Jane squared her shoulders as she stopped by the foot of Phil's bed. "The police said Phil was probably hit around eleven o'clock on Saturday night, right?"

"Yes." It had been announced over the PA today at school.

"And there was a party at the Odinsson's but nobody saw anything."

Maria shrugged. "If anyone came out from the Odinsson's at the time, they were probably drunk."

Plus, most of the crowd at the Odinssons were from Asgard High rather than Midgard,which meant they didn't care about some Midgard kid who'd been hit by a car – unless it was one of their cars and they'd dented the bumper or something.

Jane flushed. "I was at that party. And I remember Thor and Loki having a fight around ten-thirty, maybe quarter to eleven. No," she added sharply, "I wasn't drunk. Or even drinking. Thor invited me and I...I went along to see what it was like."

"You don't have to explain yourself," Maria told her, although she mentally filed away the note that the rumours of a relationship between the former Asgard student and the quiet, bookish girl were apparently true.

"Yes, I do," Jane snapped, then took a deep breath. "Sorry. I've just—I've been thinking about this all day, okay? And I haven't said anything to Thor because—Anyway. Nobody saw Loki after he and Thor fought, but when I finally got away from the party, it was at least eleven-thirty and his car was missing from the driveway."

"Which could mean anything."

"Maybe. Or it could mean that Loki was in a position to see something – because Thor said that when Loki gets in a mood, he gets in his car and he cruises around the neighbourhood."

Maria caught her breath. It wasn't much, but it was more than anything else they had. "Then he could go to the police..."

Hope died.

If there was a definition of 'trouble on two legs' in the dictionary, Loki Odinsson's picture was beside it. He'd been in trouble with the cops more than a few times in his eighteen years – nothing too serious – at least, nothing they could prove – and each time he'd been bailed out by his wealthy and powerful father.

Jane grimaced. "You see?"

"Yeah," Maria muttered. "I see."

"Jane mentioned this to me," Pepper said then. "And I thought that we could do some investigating of our own."

Maria regarded the redhead skeptically. "Investigating Loki?"

"Yes."

She figured she might as well say it out loud. "Why? Why bring this to me?" When the other two girls looked confused, she continued, doggedly. "You don't like me after what I said about Stark." Maria turned to Jane. "And you and Phil haven't been civil since freshman year and the fight over the notes for that science project."

The two girls looked at each other – dark and redhead. Pepper spoke first. "Phil and I were friends. And," she added, "just for the record, you were largely right about Tony. He _is_ spoiled and used to getting his own way."

Maria stared. "_You_ agree with _me_ about Tony Stark?"

"Well, I wouldn't have said it like that, or among those people," Pepper said with a shrug. "Speaking the truth to power doesn't mean picking a stupid time. And Tony's all that, but he's more too. I've seen sides to him other than the ego and the showoff, so I know that's not all there is. It's just a habit with him that he can't get out of – added to which, he's a guy. And, that's not the point," she added. "This isn't about Tony, or even about you. I'm doing this for Phil."

_Fair enough,_ Maria figured. And way more than she'd ever have expected from Pepper Potts on the matter of Tony Stark.

She looked at Jane.

"We didn't get along," said the honours student bluntly. "But what happened to him was wrong. And..." She took a deep breath. "My mom was in hit-and-run accident when I was twelve. The driver was never found and nobody came forward. So I came forward with what information I have."

And _that_ was way more than Maria had bargained to get from Jane Foster. She floundered awkwardly for a moment, then squared her shoulders. "Thank you," she said, and meant it.

Jane shrugged. "It's not much – and I know asking Loki is probably going to be a dead end, but the worst he can say is 'no'."

"The worst he can do is laugh in our faces," Maria muttered.

"But we'll worry about that when he does," Pepper said. "So we're in this together?"

She seemed almost anxious as she looked at Maria, as though she was expecting her to object.

"As long as 'we' doesn't include Tony Stark. Or," she added to Jane, "Thor Odinsson."

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Pepper made the old-fashioned gesture with easy gravity.

Jane just shrugged. "Thor and Loki aren't on good terms right now," she said. "Anything I could add would just make it worse. Actually, anything _anyone_ added would just make it worse. And I'm not going there."

Maria winced, thinking of the Odinsson brothers - gregarious, imposing Thor and charming, dangerous Loki. Yeah, she wouldn't go there either if it came down to it. "Okay," she said. "So we're investigating Loki Odinsson – son of one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country, with a brother who has a crush on you," she pointed at Jane. "And is also known to be one of the biggest teenaged troublemakers in town."

"Yes."

"That's about the shape of it," said Pepper, very seriously. Then a smile peeped at the corners of her mouth. "Can we call ourselves Phil's Angels?"

Jane gave her a disbelieving look. "Oh my God, Pepper, _what_?"

"He'd laugh," Pepper insisted. "You know he would."

Maria felt a giggle bubbling up inside her, because Pepper was right – Phil would have laughed at it. Then she glanced at the bed and felt a little guilty, like she was somehow deserting Phil in making other friends – or, well, getting along with other people. Not friends. not yet.

But it was for him, wasn't it?

A hand brushed her arm, unexpected touch. "Hey," Jane said, not without some sympathy. "You okay?"

"Yes," Maria said, and managed a smile – or something that was close enough for the other girls. "And I like the idea of Phil's Angels." Getting justice for him.

Pepper struck a pose, like she was holding a gun pointed up in the air. Jane grinned and pointed her 'gun' out to the side. They looked at Maria who rolled her eyes, but threw her hip out and mimed pulling a gun from a holster and holding it ready.

They burst into laughter, quickly hushed, but with the occasional resurgence of giggles.

And for the first time in over a week, Maria felt like she might have somewhere to belong, for a little while, anyway.

**fin**

FINAL NOTES: There's unlikely to be more of this, I'm afraid.


End file.
